Steve Blum and Jeff Kline talk Rescue Bots & Transformers Prime

Transformers Prime and Rescue Bots Executive Producer Jeff Kline and voice actor supreme Steve Blum (Starscream, Heatwave) recently took part in a chat session with fans. This great and insightful chat session shed some light on a few cool elements of the series, including the answer to the question – are Transformers Prime and Transformers Rescue Bots in the same continuity?

We can proudly reveal, direct from Executive Producer Jeff Kline himself, yes, these two great shows are indeed in the same continuity! The creative team felt it was important that both shows share the same continuity – so when you see Optimus Prime in Rescue Bots, it means he has briefly taken a leave of absence from Jasper, Nevada.

Other questions covered include:

Guest stars
Jeff Kline says the team is pursuing their top choices for guest actors, to have them come in and do a spot where there is space in their schedules. There are a few guest voices coming up in Prime, and a couple in Rescue Bots too.
Jeff and Steve went on to say that their list of top choices for guest actors stems from people they want to work with, who they feel would be good with the group (Steve Blum commented that he’s already got two of the people he really wanted to work with right there, Peter Cullen and Frank Welker)

How do you top the season 1 finale?
Jeff Kline – it is a big challenge going forward, though they feel they can and will top it with season 2. Jeff promises they will deliver on some expectations, while delivering some surprises on others. No specific clues though, the whole conversation was very spoiler free.

Will there be a Transformers Prime movie?
Jeff Kline – It is a real possibility, but it depends on a lot of things going right.
They did a showing of the season 1 finale at a local theatre and people were very impressed with how the series looked on the big screen. “And that was season 1” – sounds like there is even more jaw-dropping CGI in store for season 2!

We would like to thank Jeff Kline and Steve Blum for taking the time out to share this Q&A session with us.

Transformers Rescue Bots and Transformers Prime return to The Hub on Saturday 18 February – that’s less than two weeks from now! Are you excited? About Steve Blum

With literally hundreds of V/O credits to his name, Steve Blum is best known as the voice of “Spike Spiegel” from Cowboy Bebop, “Wolverine” from several incarnations of X-Men (animated movies, games, the Wolverine and the X-Men TV Series, The Super Hero Squad Show and X-Men Anime), “Orochimaru,” “Zabuza,” and others from Naruto, “Tom” (the robot host) from Cartoon Network’s Toonami, “Green Goblin” from the Spectacular Spiderman series, “Heatblast,” “Vilgax” and “Ghostfreak” from Ben 10, “Grayson Hunt” (Bulletstorm) “Grunt” (Mass Effect 2), “Tank Dempsey” (Call of Duty), “Killer Croc” from Arkham Asylum, “Oghren” (DragonAge),“Vincent Valentine” (Final Fantasy VII), “Leeron” (Guren Lagann), “Jamie” from Megas XLR, “Storm Troopers” and many others in most of the Star Wars games, “Boogoo,”“Sparky” and others from Disney’s Anime – Stitch, The voice of 7-11, dozens of Digimon and a gigantic list of other characters from Anime, Video Games, TV and Film.

Currently he’s working on the new super-charged CGI series Transformers: Prime, playing the sometimes delusional but always deadly Decepticon Starscream!! And coming soon as Heatwave on the brand new kid-friendly Transformers: Rescue Bots!

For the past 15 years, Jeff Kline has worked across numerous mediums and platforms as both writer and executive producer, and has been involved in over 40 animated and live-action series and pilots. Currently, Kline is the executive producer and co-developer of the fully-CG series Transformers: Prime (along with partners Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci) and the animated G.I. Joe: Renegades. Both series are produced for The Hub, a television network for kids and their families, owned by Hasbro. Hasbro recently signed Kline to a development and production deal, and he is set to premiere the new animated series , TRANSFORMERS RESCUE BOTS, in December 2011.

Previously, Kline has been involved in such hits as Jackie Chan Adventures (Kids WB), Men in Black: The Animated Series (Kids WB), Roughnecks: The Starship Troopers Chronicles (Syndicated), the Emmy nominated Dragon Tales (PBS), and That Was Then (ABC).

Kline began his television career as a Development Executive with tenures at NBC Entertainment, and nearly six years at Columbia Pictures Television before transitioning into writing and producing.

A graduate of Boston University, Kline also helped to start the ‘BU in LA’ industry exchange program, when he was a student at the University. He guest lectures for the program and has also received their Distinguished Alumnae award. In the spring of 2009, Kline taught at BU’s College of Communications

Kline currently splits his time between Los Angeles and Maine, where he resides with his family.

I think we'd ALL like a better name than "Aligned" for the family, and I expect that somewhere down the line, we'll actually get one, like we eventually did for "The Unicron Trilogy". I've actually heard someone suggest trying to sculpt a name around Dark Energon before. We're just going on the terminology Hasbro's been using until we can get something better and official in place.

Because they're trying to use the established termonology. We talk about G1 Continuity. Armada continuity. Ect. All the time. That these things are in fact "Continuity Families" as the wiki phrases it, made up of many similar and related universes that can be quite contradictory in the details remains true, but fans still use the terms regardless all the time. "Aligned continuity" is the same sort of term.

"Aligned Continuity Family" would have been a much clearer name for it but it's a much more recent and nerdy fan -coined term and unlikely to have penetrated into Hasbro's conciousness yet.

-ZacWilliam, not sure I agree with point #4 of your conclusions, but the rest and your general gist is correct now. Well, except for #6, see totally apart from the Aligned issue the same head guy is in charge of both the Prime and Rescue Bots cartoons on Hub and has specifically said he's making those two things be the exact same universe. Cause he thinks it makes sense since they're on the same network at the same time. Though we have yet to see if it will ever come up on either show.

Transformers Prime, Exodus and War for Cybertron– The final word was given on the aligned continuity.– Each platform has its own story needs in order to be dynamic and successful. Therefore, not every detail will line up perfectly. Aaron talked about the "squint test" whereby everything can be seen to be one family of stories, but fans like us will see differences. The emphasis is on telling good, solid stories, not on making each version line up perfectly at the expense of the quality of the final product.

1) No story-verses have to line up2) Each story-verse is free to contradict each other3) Same characters aren't required to look anything like each other.

Archer's "squint test" is actually to see what they have in common, not to squint and see what's different.

So from that I conclude:

4) That WfC and FoC are still free to be new G1 origins, while still being a part of the Prime family and Rescue Bots family5) PRIME continuity can act independantly from the books and games.6) Rescue Bots need not share any history or current story with PRIME, so it's kinda pointless to try to figure out when the events of Rescue Bots correspond to the events of PRIME.7) If the live actions films are re-booted, they can still fit into the Aligned Continuity since they do not have to look like PRIME or share story elements of PRIME, WfC, Exodus, etc.

The key tie-together seems to be Dark Energon. So, if my conclusions are correct then why not call each different 'Verse a member of the Dark Energon Chricles, or something along those lines? Wouldn't that make more sense than using the phrase "Aligned Continuity"?

What- you don't like my fish?
As long as things are allowed to be a little different, then you ae required to accept this particular artist's interpretation of a clown fish. I was inspired when watching Finding Nemo.

You see, it doesn't matter what you think it looks like- it is a clown fish because I say it is. Whatever you think about it is moot.

Actually, we don't have to accept it. We can tell you that you've drawn a tree, not a fish. That isn't a style difference, that is the inability to observe, record and communicate (or the lack of desire to do so).

You can insist that you were trying to draw a fish left, right and upside-down, but if the people observing the artwork can't tell what it is or, even worse, thinks it is something else, then you've failed.

The characters in WFC are clearly Prime, Megatron, Ratchet, etc. The characters in Prime of clearly Prime, Megatron, Ratchet, etc. Different art directors influenced the design and different artists produced it, but the communication of character is clear.

WFC is taking the Aligned backstory and expanding on it, owning it and making it a unique experience that you don't have to follow Prime to enjoy. Prime is taking the Aligned story and expanding it, owning it and making it a unique experience that does not require you play any of the games. This resulted in different art direction.

Citing G1 and IDW doesn't really help illustrate how the Aligned Continuity is aligned; you may have missed it, but 1 is ridiculed constantly for its poor continuity, and IDW has received it's own grief for their poor continuity.

ZacWilliam

Sigh, reposting from like 4 posts ago…

It sounds like you havn't actually listened to what Hasbro has said on the subject. What THEY mean by combined continuity and what you are thinking of are two entirely different things.

Hasbro has one story bible that they want all their current lines to be based on. Being based on that continuity bible makes them all the same in the broad strokes, the big points of backstory and the way the universe functions. But each set of creators are free to tell the stories they want based on that bible. Hasbro has flat out said that they don't care about all the exact little details of each different media project matching up, just that they're part of the same general fictional framework.

See "G1 Continuity" has both the G1 cartoon and Marvel comics (and heck IDW and DW comics) inside it. They are different universes with very different contradictory stories but they are all still G1. THIS is what Hasbro means by "Combined/Aligned continuity" WfC and Prime are different contradictory variations but they spring from the same source material and are both part of the Aligned continuity family. It's really not a hard concept.

-ZacWilliam, should save this the number of times he's had to explain it to folks…

That is NOT what they said at all bro!

As a matter of fact, Aaron Archer has gone on record re-affirming that they are not like G1's multi coninuity family- but that they are- now pay attention here- 1 SINGULAR FLOWING STORY, where there are NO contradictions and that EVERYTHING MESHES TOGETHER PERFECTLY.

Archer stated that the only continuity problems there can only be seen from (his words) a squint test.

Now, we have gone ad-nauseum over the conradictions of PRIME, WFC and EXO… they aint the result of squinting bruddah.

ZacWilliam

Congradulations on being so ludicrusly exagerated as to be nonsensical. Your point here takes things so far it ends up having absolutely nothing to do with what were discussing.

What- you don't like my fish?
As long as things are allowed to be a little different, then you ae required to accept this particular artist's interpretation of a clown fish. I was inspired when watching Finding Nemo.

You see, it doesn't matter what you think it looks like- it is a clown fish because I say it is. Whatever you think about it is moot.

While I'm still uncertain to see how Rescue Bots may be connected to Prime I'm willing to be open minded about it and see if Rescue Bots does indeed take place in the Prime countuity. Who knows? Maybe it does!

Right now, the only official sense of RB being connected to Prime is from Jeff Kline and Hasbro, but as RB gets more eps, it might become more apparent. For the time being, there's nothing (other than the art style) to say that the two shows aren't connected.

ZacWilliam

Congradulations on being so ludicrusly exagerated as to be nonsensical. Your point here takes things so far it ends up having absolutely nothing to do with what were discussing.

Try it some time. Thier POV gives a valid reason for the choice and positive outcome to it.

-ZacWilliam, edited to better address this, moving on now.

Beat me to it, as I was about to say the same thing about grossly over-exaggerated.

I'm still waiting for a response on how RB isn't connected to Prime other than art style.

different artwork and style doesnt means its a different continuty, There are MANY Shows that had spinoff or sequels and yet their succesors have a different style than the previous show, but that doesnt measn it takes place in its own world

its like saying Oh the current mario games cant take place in the same continuty as the old 2d games (every single game had different looks for each character (mostly cause of console limiations), yet they are in the same continuty)

That's a good point there! I mean even the Batman TAS had different styles going on once it got into the New Batman Adventures. The same goes for Antholgy films like with the Animatrix,Batman Gotham Knight,and Halo Legends. The Alinged countutiy may be on par with those.

While I'm still uncertain to see how Rescue Bots may be connected to Prime I'm willing to be open minded about it and see if Rescue Bots does indeed take place in the Prime countuity. Who knows? Maybe it does!

different artwork and style doesnt means its a different continuty, There are MANY Shows that had spinoff or sequels and yet their succesors have a different style than the previous show, but that doesnt measn it takes place in its own world

its like saying Oh the current mario games cant take place in the same continuty as the old 2d games (every single game had different looks for each character (mostly cause of console limiations), yet they are in the same continuty)

Whether Hasbro means they are all the same universe and storyline or not, that *is* what they are saying. The word "continuity" has a distinct meaning, and that meaning is not "based on the same core structure/basic history elements".

No. What they're saying is literally what's in my post. They've gone into detail. That they're using a term in a slightly different simplified way than some in the fandom have grown used to (and people talk about G1 countinuity all the time, this is using the word in that same exact sense) is moot, because they've right out and explained what they mean by it in detail.

it still has the same effect: stifling the unique growth of the various forms of Transformers by forcing them to adhere to the same framework.

1) You're not looking at it from their point of veiw. Hasbro more than anything wants kids to be able to cross between their various media and understand the basic universe and concepts without being confused by every universe and backstory being entirely different.

Every kid who gets into the kid aimed Spiderman media gets the same Peter Parker with roughy the same powers, villians, and backstory. Now imagine Spiderman had one cartoon with Peter, but another with Miles Morales, and a third set of kids books and toys with Miguel O'hara. From a corporate sense thats terrible. It's confusing, complicated, devisive and it diffuses your character and brand. It's a bad idea. THAT'S what Transformers was in recent years.

This is Hasbro's solution to that and from a corperate perspective it is a very good idea to facilitate audience crossover and understanding across your whole swath of media.

2) It's really not stifiling creativity in any way as the creators are being alowed to go where ever they want in taking off from the bible. Heck, half of the fan complaints are because they've gone so many different ways. Seriously, EVERY media and liscensed property tends to have this sort of bible for their liscensies and internal groups to work from. The only difference here is that Hasbro really put extra effort and depth into it and is no longer reinventing their whole property completely every couple years like they did last decade. They've decided to take Transformers more seriously as a unified media property and not just a toy line.

-ZacWilliam, any focus that allows for WfC, Prime, and Rescue Heroes has plenty of scope and flexibility for creativity.

Whether Hasbro means they are all the same universe and storyline or not, that *is* what they are saying. The word "continuity" has a distinct meaning, and that meaning is not "based on the same core structure/basic history elements".

Even if you grant them their gross misuse of the word, it still has the same effect: stifling the unique growth of the various forms of Transformers by forcing them to adhere to the same framework.

If comic book fans used your definition of "continuity" 99% of Marvel and DC comics would not be in continuity with each other. Every artist has a different style and a cartoon show's visual look is the same thing, it's that shows visual interpretation of things.

If comic book fans used your definition of "continuity" 99% of Marvel and DC comics would not be in continuity with each other. Every artist has a different style and a cartoon show's visual look is the same thing, it's that shows visual interpretation of things.

Hasbro definately doesn't hold to your definition so it's kinda moot in discussion of their shows.

-ZacWilliam, heh, IDW would be rendered at least 3 seperate continuities if not more…